First up, my oldest had a birthday today! She turned 13, officially a teenager, and that makes *me* officially the mom of a teenager! We have a rule in our home that you must be 13 to watch PG-13 movies, so for her birthday she wanted to stay home with her dad and binge watch The Hobbit movies. Sounds like a teen to me. 😉

Now is when I have to share a story. We have come across many nice people in our trip, but the family we met in Omaha are extra special. We wanted some items from Amazon, but we needed an address to ship them to. We called the local bishop, and, after some verification, he gave us his home address. It could have ended there, but this whole family got involved, getting us in to the zoo for free (twice!), inviting us to their house for dinner, spending time with us, and inviting us to their homeschool co-op. More on them later…

The Henry Doorly Zoo is probably the most awesome zoo I have been to (sorry, San Diego). We especially liked the Bears, big cats, desert dome (as big as the Epcot center), creatures of the night, and indoor rainforest. Rides were included with their membership, which included a sky tram, regular tram, carousel, and more. Plus a crazy huge splash pad. Best zoo ever. I was really sad Deon and Aunica didn’t join us.

   
    
   
After we finished at the zoo, we picked up Deon and Aunica for her special dinner at red lobster. She was a little bit coerced, as it is the time of year for their all-you-can-eat shrimp special. She does like shrimp so…

Here is my very special newly minted teenager.